Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining and technology firm, reported significant growth across various metrics in its 2023 annual earnings report. Alongside this growth, the company unveiled plans for a Layer-2 network for Bitcoin called Anduro, aiming to enhance the flagship cryptocurrency's ecosystem.

Marathon's Chairman and CEO, Fred Thiel, highlighted the company's achievements in 2023, describing it as a record-breaking year where they successfully revitalized their fleet of previously acquired mining rigs and optimized their performance.

The company mined a record 12,852 Bitcoin throughout 2023, bringing the total Bitcoin on its balance sheet to 15,126 as of December 31, 2023.

Financially, Marathon experienced remarkable growth, with revenue increasing by 229% year over year to $387.5 million in 2023 from $117.8 million in 2022. Net income for the year reached a record $261.2 million compared to a net loss of $694 million in the previous year. The fourth quarter of 2023 saw a net income of $151.8 million, with diluted earnings per share standing at $1.06 for the year.

As of December 31, 2023, Marathon held $357.3 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents along with 15,126 BTC in unrestricted Bitcoin, totaling approximately $997.0 million.

Marathon also saw significant operational growth, with its energized hash rate increasing to 24.7 EH/s in 2023 from 7.0 EH/s in 2022, marking a growth rate of 253%. Fleet efficiency improved by 21% to 24.5 joules per terahash, and the company expanded its operations to 900 megawatts of total capacity across 11 separate facilities on three continents.

Regarding Anduro, Marathon aims to develop multiple Bitcoin sidechains with programmable application layers. The first two Anduro-based sidechains in development are Coordinate, targeting the Ordinals community, and Alys, an Ethereum-compatible chain for institutional asset tokenization. These sidechains will utilize merge-mining, allowing participating miners to earn revenue from Anduro sidechain transactions while mining on Bitcoin's base layer.

The introduction of Anduro represents a significant diversification in Marathon's focus, signaling a shift towards Bitcoin development alongside its core mining operations.